Streetsblog Capitol Hill Is Now Streetsblog USA

I’m pleased to announce that our national news site has a new name: Streetsblog USA. Say it with pride.

Why the change? Simply put, “Streetsblog USA” is a better reflection of the nationwide coverage that Tanya Snyder and Angie Schmitt are producing.

The new name was a long time coming. Streetsblog Capitol Hill launched five years ago, aiming to connect our readers to the important yet byzantine process of reauthorizing the federal transportation bill. At first there seemed to be a window of opportunity to pass a landmark piece of legislation. That changed when the Tea Party Congress came to power, and expectations for major policy reforms at the federal level deflated. There were still important fights to track on Capitol Hill, but they were all about playing defense. Transit and active transportation programs had to be protected from a hostile Congress.

Meanwhile, cities aren’t waiting around to build safer, more multi-modal streets. Mayors are tossing aside the cars-first approach to transportation policy, local governments are shedding 1960s-era regulations that prioritize space for automobiles above space for people, and grassroots advocates are winning battles to bring down highways. With or without support from Congress, great ideas for city streets are popping up everywhere, and we want to help them spread. We also want to show all the ways that national, state, and regional policies foil this progress, and we’ve had no shortage of stories about state DOTs using federal cash to go on highway binges or regions sacrificing their future to build more sprawl.

So we’ve been doing all that for a few years now, and “Streetsblog USA” has been brewing for a while. The new name is really an acknowledgment that our publishing title needs to catch up with our published content. Streetsblog USA will continue to provide the mix of Beltway coverage and livable streets updates from around the country that our readers have come to rely on. We’ll keep on looking for better ways to bring you Streetsblog content, like the new Talking Headways podcast, but the basic purpose, style, and scope of that content isn’t going to change.

A few notes about the details. The location of the site is now usa.streetsblog.org. You may have to refresh your browser cache to see the new header graphic. We’re wrapping up the new navigation graphics today — pardon the temporary inconsistencies. As we complete the transition, all pages using the previous domain will redirect seamlessly to the new one. The @StreetsblogDC Twitter account will morph into @StreetsblogUSA later today. For everyone who subscribes to the RSS feed, the new URL you want is feed://usa.streetsblog.org/feed. If you subscribe to the daily email feed, you don’t need to change a thing.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned. There are more changes coming to Streetsblog that we’re really excited to share with you later on in 2014.

Ben Fried
is the Editor-in-Chief of Streetsblog. He has been covering the movement for safer streets, effective transit, and livable cities since 2008.

Will the new name include better reporting and actual analysis rather than pure opinion and gossip stories? Companies change their name all the time with little effect on better outcomes.

http://www.streetsblog.org Ben Fried

This was pretty clear in the post, but I can clarify: If you hated Streetsblog Capitol Hill, you are going to hate Streetsblog USA.

SteveVaccaro

Congratulations Ben, Angie and Tanya! Looking forward to the same good content with a cool new brand…

Alex Brideau III

Kudos on the new branding! I think the older “Streetsblog Capitol Hill” sometimes implied that it was “Streetsblog DC”. This change should eliminate any such confusion and further build nationwide interest in Streetsblog.

And while we’re discussing change, might I suggest that the streetsblog.org URL point to Streetsblog USA (or Streetsblog Network) instead of the Streetsblog NYC local site? Streetsblog is several years removed from being an NYC-focused blog (as evidenced by the recent rebranding, among other things) and the URL destination should be updated accordingly, IMHO.

http://www.streetsblog.org Ben Fried

Yes, this is a legacy of the NYC site being the first Streetsblog. One of the things we’ve got in the works this year is a new landing page that shows everything going on in the Streetsblog universe.

Andrew

I trust there will be a direct link to the NYC site for those of us primarily interested in New York goings-on?

http://www.streetsblog.org Ben Fried

Yes, the NYC site will move over to nyc.streetsblog.org. We’re still at least a few months away from that.

http://www.brookings.edu/experts/puentesr.aspx Robert Puentes

Congrats all!

Brad Aaron

You’re no Bill Berry.

Nathanael

Soooo, how about a Streetsblog DC? There’s a lot of stuff very specifically related to the City of Washington, District of Columbia….

http://www.streetsblog.org Ben Fried

GGW has that stuff down cold.

Alex Brideau III

Looks like streetsblog.org still forwards to the NYC site. Any ETA for making Streetsblog USA (or some non-city-specific page) the landing page?